My Birthday

Today is my 76th birthday.  Michael P. Garofalo, January 23, 1946 -  

My daughter, Alicia, and I, 2021

My two grand-daughters, Makenna and Katelyn, and I, 2021

My parents were Bertha June (1921-1994) and Michael James Garofalo (1916-1997).  My two brothers were Paul (1948-) and Phillip (1952-).  

My parents and I in 1947
In South-Central Los Angeles

My maternal Grand-Mother Mabel Ast Blaize on the left,
and my Paternal Grand-Mother Lena Garofalo in 1947.  

Paul, Big Mike Dad, Philip, Me, Mom
Circa 1958

I grew up in East Los Angeles and attended St. Alphonsus Catholic Grammar School, Cantwell Catholic High School (Honors Diploma), California State University at Los Angeles (B.A. Philosophy), and the University of Southern California (M.S. Library Science).  

I worked for the City of Commerce Public Library System from 1963-1969.  

Blanche Karen Eubanks and I were married in 1967.  We celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary in 2021.    

Karen and I in 1970
Biloxi, Mississippi

Served in the United States Air Force, Air Training Command, from 1969-1973.  Honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant.  

I worked for the County of Los Angeles Public Library System from 1974 to 1998.  I retired as a Library Administrator, and Regional Administrator for the East Region in the San Gabriel Valley.  I worked at offices in the Compton library, Bell Gardens library, East Los Angeles library, Norwalk library, Huntington Park library, and West Covina library.  

We lived in Bell Gardens and Hacienda Heights - both in the East Los Angeles  metropolitan area.  

Karen and I, and our families and community, raised two children, Alicia June and Michael Delmer.  We now have two grandchildren, Katelyn and Makenna. 

Alicia June, my daughter, and I in 1976.

Alicia, me, Karen, Mick, circa 1990

My colleagues in East Region at our
Community Library Managers Meeting, Circa 1993
For 15 years, I was the Regional Administrator for 22 libraries
in East Region of the County of Los Angeles Public Library System

I started creating websites in 1995, and a blog in 2005.       

Karen and I lived in Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, from 1998-2017, in a rural area on a five acre parcel.  We both worked part-time for school districts.  I was the Technology and Media Service Supervisor and District Librarian for the Corning Union Elementary School District; and Karen was a Special Education Instructional Aide.  We both enjoyed gardening and landscaping projects. 

 

Red Bluff, California, Sunny Garden

Yosemite, North Dome, 2005

Sean, me, Mick
Alicia, Karen, April
Circa 2007

Karen retired on June 14, 2014, after working part-time since 1998 as a Special Education Instructional Assistant for the Tehama County Department of Education in Red Bluff, California.  

Mike retired on July 1, 2016, after working part-time since 1998 as the Technology and Media Services Supervisor and District Librarian for the Corning Union Elementary School District in Corning, California.  

I taught yoga, taijiquan, qigong, pilates, and other fitness classes at the Tehama Family Fitness Center in Red Bluff from 2002-2016.

In 2017, we moved to Vancouver, Washington.  We are now both retired.  

Family in Oregon in 2013

Vancouver, Washington, 2017
Our New Home

Flinn and Garofalo Family Gathering
Vancouver, Salmon Creek, Washington, Summer 2021

I am very fortunate in having fairly good health, a positive attitude, and stamina for work and play for all of my long life.  I was fortunate in being able to be productively employed for 54 years, and earning good medical insurance for Karen and I.  

I am a philosopher by inclination and practice.  

I have been active with various sports, physical conditioning programs, walking, fitness, Taijiquan, Yoga, hiking, etc., during my entire healthy long life.  

However, during this past COVID epidemic period I did not walk each day, kind of huddled in my home office and read, smoked too much cannabis, daydreamed, lolly-gaged, goofed-off, and acted like a lazy depressed retiree.  Therefore, I was very out of shape at the end of 2021.  

My personal goals for 2022 are to:  

1. Maintain a dietary habit that reduces my blood sugar. 
2. Reduce my body weight to 225 pounds. 
3. Walk and exercise every day. 
4.  Read and write:    Four Days in Grayland     Cloud Hands Blog. 

5.  Help and take care of my wife, family and friends. 
6. Support humanistic and environmental causes. 
7.  Explore Photography using my Canon SX740 camera, Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop; and work on our Family Photo Project😊 with Karen. 

8. Enjoy old age. 
9. Travel to the Coast and Yurt camp each month for four days.  
10.  Yet to be Determined, New Opportunities, Unknown

That about sums it up!

A Blogger's Hardware Setbacks and Steps Forward

Suddenly, my thin ho-hum ASUS laptop computer, used for field work and play, lost the ability to connect to my home wifi, then went blank and would not turn on again.  It could not be revived, despite my heroic medico-laptop efforts.  Sadly, this weakly little laptop was pronounced dead on 1/21/2002 at 3:54 am.    

Things break down and don't work anymore and my wallet hurts.  

I went on a Yurt Camping trip from Monday (1/17) to Thursday (1/20) to Nehalem Bay State Park near Manzanita, Oregon.  All my writing about my travel experiences, nature studies, poetry, notes, and some photographs for this trip were lost, gone, taken to the grave in the hard-drive-soul of my dead ASUS laptop.  

Yes, a setback, a cheap laptop equipment failure,  DaRn$##!!XX**!, lost written work, no warranty backup, and my wallet groans.  

Home Office Desktop System:
I write, manage photographs, read my Kindle books and Internet documents, search the Internet, and use computer software on my home office desktop computer set up.  I run a big Dell desktop computer, Epson printer and scanner, and external hard drives.  I have a nice big Samsung computer screen. Yes, and all the associated peripheral electronic gear and goodies.  Also, I use a Samsung Galaxy A32 cellphone power-house will fast T-Mobile 5G.  Very Nice, very cool, very powerful, with it, current, and my wallet moans again.    

Recently, as a sad story goes on, I upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11 on my desktop.  Sadly, my trusted webpage editor, Front Page 2003, no longer can inset photos in a webpage.  Yikes,  DaRn$##!!XX**!.  Still have to solve this problem with Front Page.

History!  Figure out and find solutions.  Move on!  

What Steps Forward?  Do It!!

So, I bought a used and refurbished HP Elitebook 8470P laptop.  My wallet shed a $250 tear.  We shall see how this hefty businessman's travel tool works for me.  

Lot's of extra computer laptop work ahead for me in the weeks ahead.  Time, time, time ...

I use my Cloud Hands Blog as searchable electronic filing cabinet.  Blogger software is simple and free.  Material can be used elsewhere in webpages.  All blog files can be backed up.  Handy.  Sharable!

I do use the laptop in the field for viewing pictures taken.  For taking photographs, I use a Canon EOS Rebel T7/2000D, a Canon SX740 PowerShot, and my cellphone Galaxy A32.   

I do regular backups on external hard disk drives from my desktop and laptop.  

Nehalem Bay, Oregon

I woke up today in my yurt in Nehalem Bay State Park.  This park is quite large with a long sandy beach, sand dunes, shore pine forest, bay views, and many hiking, biking, and horseback riding trails and roads.  The park is over 4 miles long.  

There are 310 campsites in this Park.  There were only 10 trailers/RV campers, no tent campers, and 3 yurt campers.  Thus, the Park was 95% empty of any campers this cold rainy winter day.  I enjoy the privacy, the quiet, the solitude.  

Fog, drizzling, misting, low clouds, cold, light rain ... 

Today, I plan to drive through Manzanita, Nehalem, Wheeler, Rockaway Beach and Garibaldi.  I will stop at many places in these areas.  

I walked around Barview Jetty County Park near Garibaldi.  Crews were working on the north jetty entrance to Tillamook Bay.  

I visited Manhattan Beach Wayside Oregon State Park.  

I walked on a wood boardwalk through a swamp old growth cedar forest near Rockaway Beach, and along the beach and bay.  

I ate at the Big Wave restaurant in Manzanita twice: halibut fish tacos for lunch, and pan-fried razor clams for dinner... both were excellent!    

Plenty of restaurants, gift shops, services, library, market, and cafes in Manzanita and Rockaway Beach were open.  Nice homes in Manzanita.  

What to Do at Night?

Sunrise at 8 am and sunset at 5 pm.  15 hours of Darkness.  [Photography at night?]

Reading books, cellphone Kindle, and writing on my ASUS laptop.  Reading comfortably at night in my yurt:

The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans.  By Cynthia Barnett.  W.W. Norton, 2021, 432 pages.  VSCL. 

Nehalem Bay and Manzanita Local Information            

 Nehalem Bay State Park     Images    Google Map

Nehalem Bay State Park Wikipedia

Manzanita City   Population 400.  Motels, restaurants, cafes, grocery, gas, supplies.  Images    

Explore Manzanita

Manzanita Visitor Center

Manzanita   Restaurants    "You can enjoy a farm-to-table experience at several local restaurants;A Mighty Thai, Big Wave Cafe, Bread & Ocean, and Neahkahnie Bistro just to name a few. Each serves seasonal, regional items year-round.  The area also features more conventional food offerings, including pizza, Mexican cuisine, casual fine dining, pies, pastries, contemporary and old-fashioned candy, ice cream and seafood."

Travel Options

Have a Great Time at the Beach

Neahkahnie Mountain   Hiking trails to peak.

Neahkahnie Mountain  "This peak is an inspiring place, where the Tillamook tribe believed their most powerful god resided. In fact, the name Neahkahnie comes from their words Ne ("place of") and Ekahnie {Ekone] ("supreme deity")."  

Four Days in Grayland   By Michael P. Garofalo.   Camping and travel adventures in the Pacific Northwest. 

Nehalem Valley Historical Society Museum in Manzanita

Nehalem City   Population 400.   Cafes, grocery, gas, supplies.  Images 

Nehalem Restaurants

Nehalem River     116 miles long.  Images

Nehalem Bay Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center in Wheeler 

Oswald West State Park Wikipedia

Oswald West State Park

Lower Columbia River: Astoria to Portland, Ilwaco to Vancouver

Long Beach Peninsula  

Wheeler   Population 400.     Images   Cafes, grocery, gas, supplies.

I have camped in a Yurt at Nehalem Bay State Park five times in the last two decades. 

Yurt Camping in the Coastal Northwest     By Michael P. Garofalo

Nehalem Spit Trail

Fishing, crabbing, walking beach dunes and shore, kite flying, river side exploring, mountain trails hiking, kayaking. 

Rockaway Beach   Population 1,400.      Images    Google Map

Rockaway Beach Travel  

Rockaway Beach Restaurants

Rockaway Beach Old Growth Cedar Preserve   Raised boardwalk trail, 1.1 mile, into old growth cedar forest.  Bog and forest. 

Rockaway Big Tree Boardwalk  Includes the largest cedar tree in Oregon. 

All Trails

Lake Lytle Images

Lake Lytle Pier

Bar View Jetty Beach Walk  

Rockaway Beach Travel    Travel II

Motels, restaurants, cafes, grocery, gas, supplies.

The following photographs were obtained from the Internet:

Rockaway Beach

Lake Lytle, Rockaway Beach

Manzanita Beach

Boardwalk in Old Growth Cedar Forest

Cliffs above Manzanita, Highway 101

Nehalem Bay

Nehalm Bay State Park, Oregon

A Repost from February, 2020:

I really enjoyed the expansive scenery at Neahkahnie (Manzanita) beach in Northwest Oregon.  I parked on the roadside near a pine covered slope on Ocean Road.  I was about 40' above the surf.  It was a clear day in the 40's F, with wind and sprinkles.  A few people were walking the wide flat sandy beach or roadway.  The sheer cliffs of the south-west face of Neahkahnie Mountain go straight down into the crashing surf.  I enjoyed watching a stunt kite flyer show his fine skills.

At the end of the day, I walked alone in the sand dunes on the west side of Nehalem Bay State Park (NBSP) .  The sand dunes are both high and wide and 5 miles long.  The wind and cold were daunting if you were not dressed properly.  It was getting dark.  The endless Pacific Ocean waves came pounding in to the sandy shore - thundering and roaring day and night.  Tide after tide, for eons, now, seemingly "forever."  The billions of bunch grasses bent away from the gusting wind. 

I was comfortable and dry in my clean yurt.  It has lights and electricity.  NBSP is well maintained.  This beautiful park was 95% empty.  A one night camping fee of $31, and a reserved yurt fee of $55.00.  I'd choose yurt #A11 for a family camp-out.  It got down to a chilly 35F at night, so nobody was tent camping, and only about 10 RVs in the whole campground.  Empty, Cold, Drizzling, Windy, Raining, Damp - Winter Camping in Coastal Oregon.  Come prepared! 

The town of Manzanita has everything Karen and I would need for a two-night motel getaway.  If you want shopping, drive 21 miles north to Cannon Beach.  We have stayed together here twice at NBSP in a yurt in the summer.

Today, I drove home: Cannon Beach, 101, Seaside, Astoria, 30, Ranier, Longview, I5, Kalama, Vancouver.  Highway 30, an excellent major highway, is relatively flat and straight and very fast for my tastes.  I pulled over and let cars pass many times.  I could return the way I came (Portland, route 26, and route 53 to Nehalem).  Or, drive 70 miles south on 101 to Lincoln City and back to Salem.  Or, take 101 north to Astoria.  All are beautiful drives if you take your time.  Pull over, stop a lot, stretch your legs, sip a favorite beverage, step outside your car, walk, enjoy the views.

Beautiful scenery: pine covered mountains, logged and planted tracts, port and tourist towns, fishing, coastal weathered homes, enchanting rivers and bays, farmsteads, isolation, lovely country roads, spectacular homes and estates, Highway 101 history and lore, cliffs, wind and rain, the thundering of the surf.  Coastal Oregon - my favorite.

Today, I was home, unpacked, and resting at 2 pm.  Art class at 6 pm. 

Lower Columbia River, Washington

Today, I'm going to Nehalem Bay State Park in coastal northwest Oregon.  I will be camping in a Yurt.

I will drive to Longview on Interstate 5, then drive west on WA4 to Naselle and then Chinook.  I will detour off WA4 and drive around roads leading to Altoona, Pillar Rock, and Miller Point.  Three rivers meet the Columbia River in this small Bay area: Grays River, Deep River, and Crooked Creek.  

I plan to walk around Middle Village Station Camp on the Columbia River near Chinook.  All  of the islands in the Columbia River from Chinook to Skamokawa are part of the Lewis and Clark National Park and Wildlife Refuge.  There are many historical sites in this area, like Middle Village.  

Then, over the Megler-Astoria Bridge (4 miles long, built in 1966), then south on US Highway 101 to Nehalem Bay and the town of Manzanita.  Yurt check in time of 3:30 pm.  

A stop in Seaside at the Carousel Mall for Asian lunch and shell shopping.  

Weather reports indicate this week's weather to be 45-50F, little wind, fog, low clouds, misting, drizzling rain, and intermittent light rain showers day and night.  I am prepared for wet weather with suitable clothing, shoes, and gear.  Weather was decent for a January Winter day!  

Picture of me in rain gear for walking the shore pine forest trails, sand dunes, and intertidal seashore or just sitting at a picnic table or chair outdoors at Nehalem Bay State Park in the misty, drizzling, sprinkling wet world of coastal Manzanita.  

The Tsunami warning has been lifted after last weeks volcanic eruption in the Pacific.  More people probably came to the beach last week, to see some big waves, which never, thankfully, arrived.  

The surf at Neahakanie Beach near Manzanita was mild at low tide this afternoon.  Shorebreak waves 1-3' on the sandy seaside.  

You can park along the road below Manzanita, elevated maybe 30' above the sea, and stare out your open car window as the mist, fog, and drizzling rain keeps everything wet wet wet.  

North of Manzanita all the way to Seaside are forested higher mountains, hills, tight river valleys, and dramatic cliffside views from Highway 101.  The dramatic rocky cliffs facing the pounding surf are memorable.  

All photographs below were obtained from images on the Internet:

Pillar Rock

Altoona-Pillar Rock-Miller Point Bay Area

Altoona-Pillar Rock-Miller Point Bay Area

Middle Village Station Camp

Middle Village Station Camp

Megler-Astoria Bridge

Chinook - Wikipedia   Population 450.    Images

Chinook County Park

Chinook:  Travel    Port   Port-Estuary

Chinook: Baker's Bay    Gray's Bay

Middle Village Station Camp

Chinook Tribal Nation

Chinook   Dock   Boat Launch 

Naselle:  Naselle River  Images   Store  Gas  Inland from the Columbia River.  The Naselle River flows into the south end of Willapa Bay

Naselle River  Images 

Naselle Library TRLS

Naselle is about six miles east of the junction of US101 and WA4.    Junction of US101 and WA4.  Johnston's Landing.  Along the wide Naselle River valley, and near the bridge over the Naselle River.  The Naselle River flows into the south end of Willapa Bay.  Parking near the bridge.  62 miles east of Exit 39/I5. 

Fort Columbia Historical State Park    South of Naselle

Megler-Astoria Bridge   South of Naselle 

Chinook Village

Junction of US101 and WA4.  Johnston's Landing.  Along the wide Naselle River valley, and near the bridge over the Naselle River. 
The Naselle River flows into the south end of Willapa Bay.  Parking near the bridge.  62 miles east of Exit 39/I5. 

Junction of WA4 and WA401.  Head south on WA401 if you want to get to the Ilwaco/Astoria Bridge. 

Cathlapotle House, Ridgefield, Washington

 About 15 miles north of my home in Vancouver, Washington, is the small town of Ridgefield.  It sits on a bluff above lowlands, bottomlands, lakes, sloughs, ponds, and swamps adjacent to the Columbia River.  The wetlands area is now part of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.  It is part of the "Wapato Valley" named by Lewis and Clark.  

In the 1990's Professor James Ames, Archeologist, Portland State University, led an excavation of the Indian ruins near Ridgefield in the bottomlands.  In 2005, as part of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Celebration, a replica of a Native Indian cedar plank longhouse was constructed near Ridgefield on the Refuge.  

  

The Chinook and Cowlitz River and Lewis River Peoples all lived in this area for 1,500 years.  They all build wood houses, in which to smoke and store food, keep dry and warm, work, and socialize.  They all fished, hunted, and foraged in an environment rich in resources.  

The Chinook were traders and people speaking dialects of the Chinook language, or using a Chinook trading language and sign language, were active in trading goods from Ilwaco to The Dalles.  Canoes were in everyday use by all people living along the Columbia River.     

Ridgefield City   Images     Population 4,700   The small town is on a bluff above the lowlands by the Columbia River. 

Ridgefield - Chinook House  Cathlapotle Plankhouse   

Cathlapotle and its Inhabitants 1792-1860.  By Robert Boyd.  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Portland, Oregon, 2011.  Index, 209 pages, many maps and charts, place name index, detailed bibliography, art work.  FVRL.  Fascinating study of native people living the area from For Vancouver to Ilwaco, on both sides of the lower Columbia River.  I believe there is also one plankhouse reconstructed at Fort Stevens State Park in Oregon.  I visited Native American plankhouses and shelters in Northern California at Patrick's Point State Park. 

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, Ridgefield, Clark County   This large refuge includes an auto tour through the wetlands, sloughs, bogs, and lowlands along the Columbia River.  A few trails from this road are open only in the summer.  Many birds winter here.  A second area of the refuge consists of a walking path over the railroad, a reconstructed Chinoon style plankhouse, and many walking trails through these lowlands (soaked in winter). 

Ridgefield History

Ridgefield Visitors Guide

Ridgefield Library FVRL

Ridgefield Shopping 

Ridgefield Recreation

Ridgefield Information and Travel

Ridgefield Marina    On a slough of the Columbia.  Kayak rentals, small boat launch, mooring, picnic tables, fishing, restrooms, parking lot. 

Blog Posts to the Cloud Hands Blog by Mike Garofalo regarding travel adventures in Washington State.

The Chinook Indians: Traders of the Lower Columbia River.  Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown.  University of Oklahoma Press, 1988, 372 pages, index.  VSCL, FVRL. 

Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia.  Edited by Robert T. Boyd, Kenneth M. Ames, and Tony A. Johnson.  University of Washington, 2015, 464 pages.  VSCL.  Outstanding collection of articles.  First Choice!! 

Peoples of the Northwest Coast: Their Archaeology and Prehistory.  By Kenneth M. Ames.  Thames and Hudson, 1999, 288 pages.  FVRL.

Cathlapotle and its Inhabitants 1792-1860.  By Robert Boyd.  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Portland, Oregon, 2011.  Index, 209 pages, many maps and charts, place name index, detailed bibliography, art work.  FVRL.  Fascinating study of native people living the area from For Vancouver to Ilwaco, on both sides of the lower Columbia River.  

Willapa Bay Area Information 

Lower Columbia River: Ilwaco to Washougal 

Northwest Oregon: Astoria to Cape Disappointment

Chinook Indian Nation  "The Chinook Indian Nation is made up of the five western-most Chinookan speaking tribes at the mouth of the Columbia River.  Our nearly 70-year-old constitution codifies who we are and identifies our five constituent tribes – the Clatsop and Cathlamet (Kathlamet) of present-day Oregon and the Lower Chinook, Wahkiakum (Waukikum) and Willapa (Weelappa) of what is now Washington State."  Not federally recognized. 

Chinookan Peoples

 

The Northwest Coast: Or, Three Years' Residence in Washington Territory.  He lived in Willapa Harbor from 1849-1851.  By James Gilchrist Swan.  Adesite Press, 2017, 448 pages.  FVRL. 

"James Gilchrist Swan wrote an amazingly interesting and detailed account of his years in Willipa Harbor. The origin of some modern place names, I.e., Tokeland became very clear, for example. His treatise on the nature of Native Americans is especially significant, as is his description of their languages.  I especially liked his analysis of how the Hudson Bay Company's strategy to get along with the native people was compared with Governor Stevens' botched treaty proposition along the banks of the Chehalis.  Swan was an interesting man in his own right: pioneer, scientist, Indian agent, teacher, revenue agent, probate judge, cultural and natural historian and adventurer. He is buried in an unpretentious grave in Port Townsend, Washington." 

"In November 1852 James Swan moved to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington Territory. Fascinated by the Indian communities he encountered, Swan spent the remainder of his life studying their art, material culture, and history. The author of several books, he became the Smithsonian Institution's principal agent in the Northwest, collecting natural history and ethnographic objects from Gray's Harbor through the Alaskan panhandle. He lived among the Makah Indians of Neah Bay where he taught school and was among the first Americans to visit the Haida villages of the Queen Charlotte Islands."

Swan Among the Indians: Life of James G. Swan (1818-1900).  By Lucille McDonald.  Binfords and Mort, Portland, 1972.  Index, 233 pages.  FVRL. 

Coast Country: A History of Southwest Washington.  By Lucile McDonald.  Long Beach, Midway Printery, 1989.  Index, 183 pages.  TRLS. 

The Historical and Regional Geography of the Willapa Bay Area, Washington.  By Jean Hazeltine.  South Bend, 1956, 308 pages.  FVRL

Shoalwater Willapa.  By Douglas Allen.  Snoose Peak Publishing, South Bend, WA, 2004.  Index, notes, sources, 286 pages.  TRLS.  

Chinook Resilience: Heritage and Cultural Revitalization on the Lower Columbia River.  By Jon D. Daehnke.  Foreword by Tony A. Johnson.  University of Washington, 2017, 233 pages, index, bibliography, notes.  FVRL.  Interesting discussion of evidence for the distribution of Chinook speaking people, and the history of the people in the area.  A long and detailed discussion of the creation of the Cathlapotle House in Ridgefield. 

Chinook Texts.  Collected by Franz Boas.  1984.  Includes myths, beliefs, customs, tales, and historical tales as told by the Chinookan people. 

Columbia River: The Astoria Odyssey.  By Penttila Bryan.  Frank Amato, 2004, 96 pages. 

Chinook Art, Contemporary     Chinook Design Art Products: Hats   Bags

Chinook Merchandise

Chinookan Art Style

Winter Gardening Projects

A Repost from 2014:

Karen and I have been very busy this week with home improvement projects and winter garden chores. 
We drained the west pond and removed cattails, berry vines, and other "weeds."  We removed dead cypress trees along the edge of the pond.  This was very tiring work for us.
We are planting two new rows of trees in our orchard.  We are planting potted trees (gifts from Cathy Goodin), and bare root trees.  I am laying down drip lines for all the new trees in the orchard.  We will also prune and fertilize all existing trees.  We will paint all the trunks white, and spray. 

Weeding: Quotes, Sayings, Facts

Working in the Garden: Quotes, Poems, Sayings

A Peach of a Surprise

A repost from 2012:  

This past week, I reread the Bhagavad Gita (translated by Eknath Easwaran) and The Upanishads (translated by Swami Prabhavananda).  I first read these important works in 1963.  These classic spiritual texts from India, written down in Sanskrit between 1200 and 400 BCE, are essential reading for Yogis.  

In many ways, realizing Brahman depends upon good actions and selfless service (Karma yoga), concentration and meditation, study of scriptures (Jhana yoga), heartfelt love and devotion (Bhakti yoga), guidance from a worthy and wise teacher (Guru), the healthy development of the body and calmness and evenness of mind (Hatha yoga), worship and rituals, faith, and to some extent, and a bit of luck or Grace.   
 

"Now the secret is that the other eventually turns out to be you.  The element of surprise in life is when suddenly you find the thing most alien turns out to be yourself.  Go out at night and look at the stars and realize that they are millions and billions of miles away, vast conflagrations far out in space.  You can lie back and look at that and say, "Well, surely I hardly matter.  I am just a tiny little speck aboard this weird spotted bit of dust called earth, and all that was going on out there billions of years before I was born and will still be going on out there billions of years after I die."  Nothing seems stranger to you that that, or more different from you, yet there comes a point, if you watch long enough, when you will say, "Why that's me!"  It is the other that is the condition of your being yourself, as the back is the condition of being the front, and when you know that, you know you never die."
-  Alan Watts, Swimming Headless, 1966

I first heard Alan Watts speak at California State University at Los Angeles in 1966.  I had read The Way of Zen and Beat Zen and Square Zen while in high school in 1962.  I was also well versed in the books on Zen, Buddhism, and Japanese culture by Professor D. T. Suzuki.  Mr. Watts was a charming and engaging public speaker.  He made us laugh and he made us think. 

In 1966, I was then an undergraduate majoring in Philosophy at CSULA, and working 30 hours per week at the City of Commerce Public Library.   Since then, I've read all of the books by Alan Watts, and have listened to audiotapes of his lectures and radio broadcasts.  He was definitely an intellectual and lifestyle influence in my life.  

Interdependence: Quotes, Sayings, Quips

For me, the "realization" or "surprise" comes while gazing at our garden, working and tending our garden, thinking about gardening, and eating from our garden.  Within these experiences are myriad levels of meaning and complexity: ordinary human level, metaphorical, imaginative, microscopic, molecular, atomic, subatomic ...  This spot of earth where I live has been here for millions of years and will continue long after I die.  We animals and plants come and go, interdependent, interrelated, inter-being, a changing manifestation of the Here-Now, a snapshot of the divine realm.    

This peach, these peppers,
These grapes, these tomatoes
Will all soon become me.
Such a tasty fact.
I am That and That is Me. 
Bless the gardens!
Bless the gardeners!
Bless the kitchens!
Bless the cooks!  
Bless the food! 
-  Mike Garofalo, Pulling Onions

"Out of Brahman, who is the Self, came ether; out of ether, air; out of air, fire; out of fire, water; out of water, earth; out of earth, vegetation; out of vegetation, food; out of food, the body of man.  The body of man, composed of the essence of food, is the physical sheath of the Self.  From food are born all creatures, which live upon food and after death return to food.  Food is the chief of all things.  It is therefore said to be the medicine of all diseases of the the body.  Those who worship food as Brahman gain all material objects.  From food are born all beings which, being born, grow by food.  All beings feed upon foot, and, when they die, food feeds upon them."
-  Taittiriya Upanishad, p.59

"The sages of the Upanishads teach that Brahman is the ultimate essence of material phenomena (including the original identity of the human self) that cannot be seen or heard but whose nature can be known through the development of self-knowledge (atma jana).  According to Advaita, a liberated human being (jivanmukta) has realised Brahman as his or her own true self (see atman)."  - Brahman

Peach trees and peaches have a special place in my heart.  I carefully tend the peach trees in our orchard, but a bountiful crop is often just a gift, grace, luck. 

"In China, the peach was said to be consumed by the immortals due to its mystic virtue of conferring longevity on all who ate them. The divinity Yu Huang, also called the Jade Emperor, and his mother called Xi Wangmu also known as Queen Mother of the West, ensured the gods' everlasting existence by feeding them the peaches of immortality. The immortals residing in the palace of Xi Wangmu were said to celebrate an extravagant banquet called the Pantao Hui or "The Feast of Peaches". The immortals waited six thousand years before gathering for this magnificent feast; the peach tree put forth leaves once every thousand years and it required another three thousand years for the fruit to ripen. Ivory statues depicting Xi Wangmu's attendants often held three peaches. The peach often plays an important part in Chinese tradition and is symbolic of long life. One example is in the peach-gathering story of Zhang Daoling, who many say is the true founder of Taoism. Elder Zhang Guo, one of the Chinese Eight Immortals, is often depicted carrying a Peach of Immortality." - Wikipedia

Peaches are native to China and introduced to Persia via the Silk Road before Christian times.

Xi Wang Mu, Queen Mother of the West, keeps the Immortals fed with the Sacred Peaches.  "No one knows Her beginning, no one knows Her end."

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Xi Wangmu, Braham, the Divine, the Supreme Universal Spirit, the Unmanifested and Manifested, the Absolute, the Everlasting, the Shining, Everything, Food for Life, God ...

AUM, OM  ...  Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.  

Such a tasty peach!!  

 

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, Chapter 60

Daodejing, Laozi
Chapter 60 

"Governing a large state is like boiling a small fish.
When the empire is ruled in accordance with the way,
The spirits lose their potencies.
Or rather, it is not that they lose their potencies,
But that, though they have their potencies, they do not harm the people.
It is not only they who, having their potencies, do not harm the people,
The sage, also, does not harm the people.
As neither does any harm, each attributes the merit to the other."
-  Translated by D. C. Lau, 1963, Chapter 60  

"The state should be governed as we cook small fish, without much business.
Bringing the Tao to the governing of the Kingdom will give rest to the shades of the dead.
Not that the Spirits will be inactive, but they will cease to trouble the people.
But what is of more importance, the wise ruler of the people will not hurt them.
And in so far as they do not interfere with one another, their influences conspire to the general good!"
-  Translated by Walter Gorn Old, 1904, Chapter 60 

"Rule a great state in the way one would fry little fish,

Without gutting or scraping, consider the good of the whole,

Let the empire be ruled in accord with the rule of the Tao

And the spirits of those who are gone will not seek to control.

 

Not only not seek, but spirits will harm not the people,

Not only not harm, but, because of the rule of the sage,

Who harms not, these twain, not seeking to injure each other,

Will therefore in virtue together unite and engage."
-  Translated by Isaac Winter Heysinger, 1903, Chapter 60

治大國若烹小鮮. 
以道蒞天下, 其鬼不神.
非其鬼不神.
其神不傷人.
非其神不傷人.
聖人亦不傷人. 
夫兩不相傷.
故德交歸焉. 
-  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 60  


zhi da guo ruo peng xiao xian.
yi dao li tian xia, qi gui bu shen.
fei qi gui bu shen.
qi shen bu shang ren.
fei qi shen bu shang ren.
sheng ren yi bu shang ren.
fu liang bu xiang shang.
gu de jiao gui yan.
-  Pinyin Romanization, Daodejing, Chapter 60 


"Governing a large country
is like frying small fish.
Too much poking spoils the meat.
When the Tao is used to govern the world
then evil will lose its power to harm the people.
Not that evil will no longer exist,
but only because it has lost its power.
Just as evil can lose its ability to harm,
the Master shuns the use of violence.
If you give evil nothing to oppose,
then virtue will return by itself."
-  Translated by J. H. McDonald, 1996, Chapter 60  


"Governing a great state,
Is like cooking small fish.
If you rule the world by Tao,
The ghosts (kuei) will lose their spiritual (shen) power.
Not that the ghosts lose their spiritual power,
But their spiritual power will not harm the people.
Not that their spiritual power will not harm the people,
But neither does the sage harm the people.
Since both are harmless,
Te flows back and forth [without impediment]."
-  Translated by Ellen M. Chen, Chapter 60  


"Se debe gobernar un gran Estado
tal como se fríen los pececillos, con cuidado
para que no se desentrañen.
Si se gobernara el mundo con el Tao,
el mal no tendría poder.
No porque el mal careciera de poder,
sino porque éste no dañaría a los hombres.
El mal no dañaría a los hombres,
y tampoco el sabio los dañaría.
Si no se atacaran mutuamente, unirían sus Energías
y así ambos aumentarían su Poder."
-  Translation from Wikisource, 2013, Tao Te Ching, Capítulo 60


"Ruling a large kingdom is indeed like cooking small fish.
They who by Tao all that is under heaven
Did not let an evil spirit within them display its powers.
Nay, it was not only that the evil spirit did not display its powers;
Neither was the Sage's good spirit used to the hurt of other men.
Nor was it only that his good spirit was not used to harm other men,
The Sage himself was thus saved from harm.
And so, each being saved from harm,
Their “powers” could converge towards a common end."
-  Translated by Arthur Waley, 1934, Chapter 60  

Chapter 60 of the Tao Te Ching

Chapter and Thematic Index (Concordance) to the Tao Te Ching

English Language Translators' Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List